Did I mention my tooth loss issue? I really don't even like talking about it because it makes me feel stupid and a bunch of other things including angry.
I never liked dentists. Sorry. Just never did. But I've had extensive work done over the years. Lots of crowns and so forth. Right before I started on that journey of mine I had several root canals and crowns. I spent a ton of money. You could probably say that most of my teeth had root canals etc. And my teeth looked pretty good. This was necessary because I had been avoiding the dentist after having kids.
A year after moving across the country, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Bi-lateral breast cancer stage 2 to be precise. After a double mastectomy I had chemo, a reconstruction, and then started a therapy of after meds. That medicine it turns out is very hard on some people. Everyone, a little different. I was avoiding the dentist again.
I started losing my teeth! Well the first one you couldn't see really. But as time went on another, then another. Turns out I wasn't losing my teeth I was losing crowns because the bone and the part of tooth that holds the crown was becoming bad. This is a rare side effect of the medication. A more common one is hair thinning. After a couple of years that happened too. :( They say that will reverse when medication stops (I have another year and several months to go). But back to my teeth.
After moving again I vowed to find a dentist I could tolerate. I finally did, and voila~ I am now the proud owner of dentures (uppers to be precise). Yuck. However this wasn't an easy process. It required extensive oral surgery, done in a hospital because of my lymphedema in both arms.
Yes, there are wonderful things in the world of medicine that save many lives afflicted by cancer. The down side is you will never be the same and the treatment takes its toll. The upside is you are ALIVE. So I'm not complaining here. But jeesh, my teeth? I never would have thought this would happen. It was a traumatic experience and I'm ashamed to say that it turns out I am a very vain person apparently. But I am alive. :)
5 comments:
I read your posts regularly, whenever they are posted, and I think you are not a vain person even apparently! Your writings are helpful in some ways.
And, kudos to you for being positive towards life :)
I wish you health, happiness, and peace.
Nothing to be ashamed of, my dear. It happens to the best of us. I have good teeth, horrible gums. I suffer from periodontal disease, so it is only a matter of time before I get my own set of choppers because my gums will no longer support my teeth.
Put a positive spin on it--you can now smile without the gaps of missing teeth! :)
Thank you both for the kind words of encouragement. Every week I get a little more used to this; and as Older and Weiser said, now I can smile! This comes in handy because my three beautiful grandchildren make me smile everyday.
I hope this comment shows up as either they don't go through because of the typing in the numbers thing, or it looks like they went through but it never shows up here.
We are twins. The shots have no effect whatsoever on me, so I have to be put under to have work done. It means extra big bucks. And I so dread going in. I have had a crown that fell off over a year ago that needs to be put back if possible, and all kinds of other work to be done. As you get older you wonder how much to spend, not that I have any money anymore anyway. I hate, hate, hate the dentist. It's so hard for me to even contemplate going. And I don't know where to go down here now. Not just the corner guy, but someplace where they can maybe do a couple of implants and bridge between them or something. It's so stressful
Forgot to mention, the crown I lost a year ago in toward the front so it makes me look like a crack whore when I open my mouth. Lovely.
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